October 31, 2022 - 1 Corinthians 10:21

“You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too.” 1 Corinthians 10:21 NLT

Lord, when we read this verse is it easy to agree with it. It is also easy to want to breeze over it saying, “I would never have anything to do with demons. I am certainly not going to dine with them.” I wonder though if we might be too quick to dismiss this verse. Lord, I think that we might be surprised at how many of our thoughts and actions are influenced by demonic forces. We are so used to being surrounded by evil that it doesn’t affect us as it should. We watch shows and listen to music that promote things such as murder, perversion, negative language, greed, drug use, jealousy, backstabbing, manipulation, sexual sins, lying, etc., and it doesn’t shock us. We watch things where people are putting others down or mistreating others in the name of comedy and we laugh along. We believe it doesn’t affect our behavior, but it desensitizes us to evil.

Lord, open our eyes to places that we are engaging with or tolerating evil in our lives. How many things that are truly evil do we accept or tolerate because it is so normal in our cultures? Either we go along with them because they seem so normal that we are blinded to what it is, or we know it isn’t good, but we don’t want to be weird by standing against it. Lord, we don’t want to be people who just go with the flow because it is easier, or we fear being rejected. We want to be Christians who stand strong for righteousness and purity; Christians who run from participating in any kind of evil. Show us the places that we are allowing demons to influence our thoughts or actions. We do not want to allow any of these things in our lives. Forgive us and teach us how to stand up for holiness at any cost.

In Jesus name, amen.